Akira

Member of group

Biography

Akira is the lead guitarist of the band UVERworld, and is also in charge of backing vocals and programming for the band.
Way back in Shiga, Akira and Takuya are neighbours and Katsuya said that you can walk from Akira’s house to Takuya’s house with your eyes closed…And you all know that Takuya, A...

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Akira is the lead guitarist of the band UVERworld, and is also in charge of backing vocals and programming for the band.

Way back in Shiga, Akira and Takuya are neighbours and Katsuya said that you can walk from Akira’s house to Takuya’s house with your eyes closed…And you all know that Takuya, Akira, and Katsuya went to the same childcare when they were younger.
Akira was in 5th or 6th grade when he started seriously getting into music plus playing the second hand guitar passed down from his 3 year older brother. He used to make his own tapes and stuff. During that time the band that he listen to is mostly B’z. Watching them on TV made him think, “I wish I could learn how to play the guitar like that…” And some other bands he listened to at that time was Funeral For A Friend and Lostprophets.

He was invited to join the late Sangoku Road by Takuya. Information states that there were once when they went to the same live and chatted a little. Of course, Takuya, being Akira’s neighbour further results in Takuya inviting Akira to join them as a guitarist.

Akira & UVERworld
Akira is also a key personnel to the existence of UVERworld’s music. In fact, the very existence of the name ‘UVERworld’ itself is credited to Akira. Akira was the one who came up with the word ‘UVER’ when he accidentally came across the word ‘über’ which he combined with ‘over’ while browsing a magazine.
Among all the UVERmembers, Akira might be the closest to Takuya because both of them are very passionate about music. Takuya described Akira as someone he can rely on as well as his ‘assistant’ when it comes to composing music. As Takuya is rightfully Akira’s senpai (senior), Akira addresses Takuya as Takuya-kun (a more polite term than just addressing Takuya by his name).

Just like BuKu (Nobuto x Takuya), there are fangirls (yes, fangirls) who support KiKu (we do have one among our staff members ), meaning Akira x Takuya. This is due to the Takuya hugging Akira relatively a number of times in front of the media. The spark started due to the What’s In BUGRIGHT period when UVERworld revealed the answer to the member who drinks [beer] the most. Takuya was imitating Nobuto when he is drunk, so he stared at Akira who sat beside him and lunged towards him, attempting to hug him, slurring “Ganbare naaaa~”

Akira was the one who got Shintarou to join the late Sangoku Road (UVERworld’s previous band). Akira and Shintarou are of the same level during their school days. One of Akira’s biggest interaction with Nobuto is when he drew a cartoon Nobuto during UVERtv #3, in which Nobuto was frantic to hide it from the audience (presumably because of the big nose).

Akira is probably grateful for Katsuya as he is a good cook. It is possible that Katsuya cooks his favourite curry often. As they are both guitarists, they often record on the same day and they would take turns to buy food. Akira described Katsuya as very sweet, and would sometimes go to him for advice.

Akira: his personality
Akira is also another passionate musician. Takuya can be said as like…EVERYTHING. He composes the majority of songs and music but for the song EXTREME Akira was the one who mainly created that song. He sat down and messed around with the guitar and piano?.. He wanted to make something at the speed he was comfortable with, and EXTREME was the speed he likes! Other songs he wrote with Takuya include Just Melody, Nitro, Yasashisa no Shizuku, SORA, zero no kotae, endscape, Shaka Beach, Ukiyo CROSSING and Roots. And in the 10 miniutes with UVERworld he says very clearly that he LOVES RECORDING and LIVES!!!

Akira is very secretive and doesnt seem to express too much emotions infront of the camera or reveal much in interviews. This might also be caused by his lack of communication. He admitted that he cannot speak well with others in several magazines. You can totaly tell that he doesn’t know what to say from time to time. Although this is true, in some places, you can tell Akira likes to joke around…Unless he is not realy telling the truth? For instance when they ask “What would you do if you had a week off?” Akira answered, “I would like to go to Disneyland, for the whole week!” There are other places where I think he just BS’s the thing…Other than that, his blogs are pretty entertaining (he does prefer talking through mail and blogs than orally).

Continuing from sotong’s opinion, Akira’s lack of communication makes him look less sociable than the others UVERworld members. However, Akira seems to have really close friends in Shiga. Akira is probably the type who treasures his friends. Then again, Akira actually secretly wants to be popular. Due to his bad communication skills, he seem to have his own ways of gaining attention. For example, clapping weirdly during interviews (or doesn’t clap at all but just stare blankly into the screen) and dyeing his hair orange in Ukiyo CROSSING period. I must say he is pretty successful with that, if not he would not have had a relatively big fanbase.

Though he secretly wants to be popular and attracting attention, he actually prefers to be alone, but his favourite place is Huckleberry, a live house, which means there will be many people there.

Akira can be very straightforward (as said by Nobuto) but that is a double-edged sword. Being straightforward means that he is honest, but this can give him the image of being disrespectful (as said by Katsuya).

Akira seems to dislike sports, and have a weird eating habit (oh my, now that there is no more Katsuya-mama to take care of this ‘child’ of hers his, I wonder what will happen to Akira D:). Akira seems to fall sick easily as stated by Katsuya, Akira is relatively unfit. Once, Akira stated that his worry is falling sick.

Speaking about eating habit, Eve thinks that Akira is indeed a weird or unique person. Surprisingly, Akira seems to have a high self-confidence as well, as he mentions that he doesn’t think there are any bad points about him. Rather than saying he is proud, it is probably more appropriate to say that he has very optimistic. Akira is a happy-go-lucky person who wrote stress as his worst fear.

Akira seems to be a kid at heart. Akira likes toys, or rather, anything playable. He has an NDS, a Playstation 3 (given by Sony to UVERworld), and a PSP. He said that he bought his NDS on impulse through the Internet. His PSP almost spoilt before, but one of the techinicians fixed it for him. Secondly, Akira seems to like eating sweets, when he is in the backstage, he would eat sweets. Thirdly, when fans gave UVERworld gifts (usually before lives), Akira actually picked up these balls out of the many other gifts given by the fans. Fourthly, in his response to the question ‘What will you do if you were to see a drunken man bullying a weak person‘, he gave a very imaginative answer, saying ‘I would imagine that the weak person is actually strong.’

Akira: his drawings
One thing that Akira is enthusiastic about is his drawings. By watching UVERtvs, it’s noticeable that Akira, though still seldom talk likes to show off his drawings (which is really good) which adds humour into the shows. He sounded really enthusiastic whenever he describes his drawing. As these illustrations (mostly of UVERmembers) are very popular among the viewers of UVERtv, they are often given away as presents. In PatiPati special column, Akira is also invited to show off his drawing in every issue. Akira will give a short description and also his rating on the drawings.
Akira said that previously, his dream is to become a manga artist (before he fell in love with music). If he were forced to quit music, he will pick up drawing instead. However, his goal is to continue music forever, so it might seem impossible for us to be reading Akira’s manga.

Little Facts
1. Had a girlfriend and took crazy amounts of Purikura (pictures)
2. Likes the feel of hunger.
3. During an MC he tried to do the thing where he said something and then the crowd is suppose to yell back…but when he did it, no one answered him, which he was really embarrased about.
4. Wants to be a fish…then he can see places even humans haven’t gone.
5. Started a job because of the cute girl working there, but that girl quit the next day…
6. Has 100 over Disney songs in his Ipod.
7. Likes to live alone. Prefers to sleep on the couch to the bed.8. Will never sleep in the UVER living room. Will prefer to sleep under the bridge.
8Akira likes Chage and Aska and is said to sing them often during Karaoke.
9. Likes to eat curry
10. Akira went on to University after high school but quit halfway to pursue music.
11. Most Akira fangirls love Akira for his smile, because it’s pretty rare for Akira to smile.
12. Is sometimes paired with Takuya as both of them hug each other quite a lot, or rather Takuya hugging Takuya.
13. Due to lighting, Takuya and Akira looks like as if they were holding hands in endscape PV.
14. He likes internet shopping.
15. He wore TM’s heavy jacket around the house when it was supposedly very hot.